Lawyers argue over sentence for Whitehorse murderer

Christina Asp convicted of second-degree murder in death of Gordon Seybold

Prosecutors and defence lawyers have been making their arguments about what punishment a Yukon Supreme Court judge should order for convicted murderer Christina Asp.

Earlier this year, a jury convicted Asp for the 2009 murder of Gordon Seybold. Her conviction carries an automatic life sentence.

The only question which remains is how long she must serve before she’s allowed to apply for parole.

Crown prosecutors want her jailed at least 16 years before she is eligible for parole. They say the 34-year-old must stop blaming others and take responsibility for her latest homicide.

In 2004, Asp stabbed her partner to death in a drunken brawl in Pelly Crossing, Yukon, and served five years in prison. While awaiting sentencing for the manslaughter conviction, she took up with a Whitehorse jail guard and convinced him to smuggle her makeup and drugs.

She later broke her parole restrictions a number of times.

When she was released in 2009, the Federal Parole Board deemed her a high risk to reoffend violently. At that time, Seybold had already been killed.

Asp told undercover police that she "felt nothing, before or after" the murder of Gordon Seybold.

Prosecutors said Asp and her boyfriend "killed an old man twice their age, for no reason, inside his own home."

'She was just trying to survive'

Asp’s defence lawyers say she deserves the chance to apply for parole after serving 12 years. They say additional time in prison will not do her any good.

Lawyer Ken Tessovitch said the jurors in her trial were not aware Asp deserves a break because of her dysfunctional aboriginal background. He also reminded Justice Leigh Gower that various Supreme Court of Canada decisions oblige him to consider her dysfunctional life as an aboriginal person.

He dismissed prosecutors’ portrayal of Asp as a violent and deceitful offender. Her called her minor misdemeanors in Whitehorse jail during the last three years "laughable." He added that prosecutors had "blown out of proportion" Asp's earlier seduction of a Whitehorse jail guard.

Corrections

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Christina Asp took up with a jail guard while awaiting trial for Gordon Seybold's 2009 murder. This occurred while she was awaiting sentencing for a 2004 manslaughter conviction.